by Nora Roberts
With humor bright in her eyes, she lowered her mouth to his and sampled long and deep. “Mmm-hmm. A definite improvement. I do like your taste, Donovan.” She linked her fingers with his, pleased that he made no move to break the contact when she slid down to nibble at his throat.
She teased him, toying with his desire and her own as she savored his flesh. Warm here, cooler there, the rich beat of a pulse beneath her lips. She enjoyed the shape of his body, the width of his shoulders, the hard, smooth chest, the quick quiver of his flat belly under her touch.
She liked the way her hand looked gliding over him, her skin shades lighter than his, the ring glowing with its meld of colors against the silver. Rubbing her cheek over him, she felt not just passion, but a deep, drugging emotion that welled up like wine and clouded her senses.
Her throat stung with it, her eyes burned, and her heart all but melted out of her chest.
With a sigh, she brought her lips back to his.
It was she who was the witch tonight, he thought, wallowing in her. She who had the power and the gift. She had taken his heart, his soul, his needs, his future, and had them cupped delicately in her hands.
He murmured his love for her, again and again, but the language of his blood was Gaelic, and she didn’t understand.
They moved together, flowing over the bed as if it were an enchanted lake. As the moon began to set, shifting night closer to day, they were lost in each other, surrounded by the magic each brought to the other.
When she rose over him, her body glimmering in the lamplight, her eyes dark with desires, heavy with pleasures, he thought she had never looked more beautiful. Or more his.
He reached for her. And she answered. Their bodies blended. The moment was sweet and fine and fierce.
She arched back, taking more of him, shuddering with the glory of it.
Their hands met, and held, gripping firm as they rose toward the next pinnacle.
When they could go no higher, when he had emptied himself into her and their flesh was weak and wet from love, she slid down to him, hardly aware that her eyes were damp. She buried her face at his throat, shivering as his arms came around her.
“Don’t let go,” she murmured. “All night. Don’t let go all night.”
“I won’t.”
He held her while her heart struggled with the knowledge that it loved, and until her body gave way to weariness and slept.
Chapter 11
It wasn’t so difficult to get a look at the appointment books for the beauty shop and health club in the Silver Palace. If you smiled enough and tipped enough, Mel knew, you could get a look at most anything. And by tipping a little more, it was easy to match her schedule with Linda Glass’s.
That was the simple part. The hard part for Mel was the prospect of spending an entire day wearing a leotard.
When she took her place in the aerobics class with a dozen other women, she sent a friendly smile in Linda’s direction.
“So, you’re giving it a try.” The redhead checked to see that her mane was still bundled attractively in its band.
“I really appreciate the tip,” Mel responded. “With the move, I’ve missed over a week. It doesn’t take long to get out of shape.”
“Don’t I know it. Whenever I travel—” She broke off when the instructor switched on a recorder. Out poured a catchy rock ballad.
“Time to stretch, ladies.” All smiles and firm muscles, the instructor turned to face the mirror at the head of the class. “Now, reach!” she said in her perky voice as she demonstrated.
Mel followed along through the stretches and the warm-up and into the more demanding routines. Though she considered herself in excellent shape, she had to give all her attention to the moves. Obviously she’d plopped herself down in a very advanced class, and there was a matter of grace and style, as well as endurance.
Before the class was half-over, she developed a deep loathing for the bouncy instructor, with her pert ponytail and cheerful voice.
“One more leg lift, and I’m jumping her,” Mel muttered. Although she hadn’t meant to speak aloud, it was apparently the perfect move. Linda flashed her a grim smile.
“I’m right behind you.” She panted as she executed what the instructor gleefully called hitch kicks. “She can’t be over twenty. She deserves to die.”
Mel chuckled and puffed. When the music stopped, the women sagged together in a sweaty heap.
After pulse checks and cool-downs, Mel dropped down next to Linda and buried her face in a towel. “That’s what I get for taking ten days off.” With a weary sigh, Mel lowered the towel. “I can’t believe I scheduled myself for an entire day.”
“I know what you mean. I’ve got weight training next.”
“Really?” Mel offered her a surprised smile. “So do I.”
“No kidding?” Linda blotted her neck, then rose. “I guess we might as well go suffer through it together.”
They moved from weights to stationary bikes, from bikes to treadmills. The more they sweated, the friendlier they became. Conversation roamed from exercise to men, from men to backgrounds.
They shared a sauna and a whirlpool, and ended the session with a massage.
“I can’t believe you gave up your career to keep a house.” Stretched on the padded table, Linda folded her arms under her chin. “I can’t imagine it.”
“I’m not used to it myself.” Mel sighed as the masseuse worked her way down her spine. “To tell you the truth, I haven’t quite figured out what to do with myself yet. But it’s a kind of experiment.”
“Oh?”
She hesitated, just enough to let Linda know it was a sensitive subject. “You see, my husband and I have been trying to start a family. No luck. Since we’ve gone through the whole route of tests and procedures without results, I had this idea that if I quit for a while, maybe shucked off some of the career tension … well, something might happen.”
“It must be difficult.”
“It is. We both— I suppose since we’re only children ourselves and don’t have anyone but each other, we really want a large family. It seems so unjust, really. Here we have this wonderful house, we’re solid financially, and our marriage is good. But we just can’t seem to have children.”
If the wheels were clicking in Linda’s head, she masked it with sympathy. “I guess you’ve been trying for a while now.”
“Years. It’s really my fault. The doctors have told us there’s a very slim chance that I’d be able to conceive.”
“I don’t mean to offend you, but have you ever thought of adoption?”
“Thought about it?” Mel managed a sad smile. “I can’t tell you how many lists we’re on. Both of us agree that we could love a child that wasn’t biologically ours. We feel we have so much to give, but …” She sighed again. “I suppose it’s selfish, but we really want a baby. It might be a little easier to adopt an older child, but we’re holding out. We’ve been told it could take years. I don’t know how we’ll handle all those empty rooms.” She made her eyes fill, then blinked away the tears. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t go on about it. I get maudlin.”
“That’s all right.” Linda stretched her arm between the tables to squeeze Mel’s hand. “I guess no one can really understand like another woman.”
They shared an iced juice and a spinach salad for lunch. Mel allowed Linda to guide the conversation gently back to her personal life. As the naive and deeply emotional Mary Ellen Ryan, she poured out information about her marriage, her hopes, her fears. She sprinkled in a few tears for good measure, and bravely wiped them away.
“You aren’t thinking marriage yourself?” Mel asked.
“Me? Oh, no.” Linda laughed. “I tried it once, a long time ago. It’s too confining for me. Jasper and I have a very nice arrangement. We’re fond of each other, but we don’t let it interfere with business. I like being able to come and go as I please.”
“I admire you.” You coldhearted floozy. “Before I met Donov
an, I had the idea that I’d go it alone through life, carving out my niche. Not that I regret falling in love and getting married, but I guess we all envy the woman who makes her own.”
“It suits me. But you’re doing all right. You’ve got a guy who’s crazy about you, and he’s done well enough that you’ve got a nice home. Just about perfect.”
Mel looked down at her empty glass. “Just about.”
“Once you have that baby, it’ll be perfect.” Linda patted her hand. “Take my word for it.”
* * *
Mel dragged herself home, tossing her gym bag one way and kicking her shoes the other.
“There you are.” Sebastian was looking down from the upstairs balcony. “I was about to send out a search party.”
“You’d do better with a stretcher.”
His smile faded. “Are you hurt?” He was already starting down the steps. “I knew I should’ve kept an eye on you.”
“Hurt?” She all but growled at him. “You don’t know the half of it. I had the aerobics instructor from hell. Her name was Penny, if that gives you a clue. And she was cute as a damn button. Then I got handed over to some Amazon queen named Madge who put me on weights and all these hideous shiny machines. I pumped and lifted and squatted and crunched.” Wincing, she pressed a hand to her stomach. “And all I’ve had to eat all day is a few stingy leaves.”
“Aw.” He kissed her brow. “Poor baby.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m in the mood to punch someone, Donovan. It could be you.”
“How about if I fix you a nice snack?”
Her lips moved into a pout. “Have we got any frozen pizza?”
“I sincerely doubt it. Come on.” He put a friendly arm around her shoulders as he led her into the kitchen. “You can tell me all about it while you eat.”
She dropped down agreeably at the smoked glass kitchen table. “It was quite a day. You know she— Linda—does this whole routine twice a week?” Inspired, Mel popped up again to root through the cupboards for a bag of chips. “I don’t know why anybody’d want to be that healthy,” she said with her mouth full. “She seems okay, really. I mean, when you talk to her, she comes across as a normal, bright lady.” Eyes grim, she sat again. “Then you keep talking, and you get to see that she’s plenty bright. She’s also cold as a fish.”
“I take it you talked quite a bit.” Sebastian glanced up from his construction of a king-size sandwich.
“Hell, yes. I spilled my guts to her. She knows how I lost my parents when I was twenty. How I met you a couple years later. The whole love-at-first-sight routine. And you were pretty romantic.” She crunched into a chip.
“Was I?” He set the sandwich and a glass of her favorite soft drink in front of her.
“You bet. Showered me with roses, took me dancing and for long moonlit walks. You were nuts about me.”
He smiled as she bit hungrily into the sandwich. “I’m sure I was.”
“You begged me to marry you. Lord, this is good.” She closed her eyes and swallowed. “Where was I?”
“I was begging you to marry me.”
“Right.” She gestured with her glass before drinking. “But I was cautious. I did move in with you eventually, and then I let you wear me down. You’ve done everything to make my life a fairy tale since.”
“I sound like a terrific guy.”
“Oh, yeah. I really played that up. We are the world’s happiest couple. Except for our one heartbreak.” She frowned but kept on eating. “You know, in the beginning I was starting to feel pretty bad about stringing her along. I knew it was a job, an important job, but it just seemed so calculating. She was nice, friendly, and I felt uncomfortable the way I was setting her up.”
She reached for the chips again, nibbling as she worked through her own thoughts. “Then, once I brought up the baby business, I could practically see her go sharp, you know? All those soft edges just cleaved away. She was still smiling and sympathetic and friendly as hell, but she was clicking it all into that brain of hers and figuring the angles. So I didn’t feel bad about letting her pry more information out of me. I want her, Donovan.”
“You’ll be seeing her again soon?”
“Day after tomorrow. At the beauty parlor, for the works.” With a little moan, Mel pushed her plate away. “She thinks I’m a woman trying to fill the time on her hands.” She grimaced. “Shopping was mentioned.”
“How we suffer for our work.”
“Very funny. Since you spent the morning hitting a little white ball around.”
“I don’t suppose I mentioned that I detest golf.”
“No.” She grinned. “Good. Tell me how it went.”
“We ran into each other on the fourth tee. Quite by accident, of course.”
“Of course.”
“So we ended up playing the rest of the course together.” Sebastian picked up her half-finished drink and sipped. “He finds my wife quite charming.”
“Naturally.”
“We discussed business, his and mine. He’s interested in making some investments, so I made a few real estate suggestions.”
“Clever.”
“I do have some property in Oregon I’ve been thinking about selling. Anyway, we had a drink afterward and discussed sports and other manly things. I managed to drop into the conversation the fact that I hoped to have a son.”
“Not just a kid?”
“As I said, it was a manly sort of event. A son to carry on the name, to play ball with, slipped more seamlessly into the conversation.”
“Girls play ball,” she muttered. “Never mind. Did he pick up on it?”
“Only quite delicately. I fumbled a bit, looked distressed, and changed the subject.”
“Why?” She straightened in her chair. “If you had him on the line, why’d you cut him loose?”
“Because it felt right. You’ll have to trust me on this, Mel. Gumm would have been suspicious if I’d taken him into my confidence so quickly. With you and the woman it’s different. More natural.”
She mulled it over, and, though she was still frowning, nodded.
“All right. I’m inclined to agree. And we’ve certainly laid the groundwork.”
“I spoke with Devereaux just before you got in. They should have a full workup on Linda Glass by tomorrow, and he’ll let us know as soon as Gumm makes a move to check out our story.”
“Good enough.”
“Also, we’re invited to dine with Gumm and his lady on Friday evening.”
Mel cocked a brow. “Even better.” She leaned forward to kiss him. “You did good work, Donovan.”
“I suppose we make a fair team. Have you finished eating?”
“For now.”
“Then I think we should prepare for Friday night.”
“Prepare what?” She shot him a suspicious look as he pulled her to her feet. “If you’re going to start fiddling around with what I’m supposed to wear …”
“Not at all. It’s this way,” he told her as they walked out of the kitchen. “We’re going to be a devoted and deliriously happy married couple.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Madly in love,” he continued, drawing her toward the stairs.
“I know the drill, Donovan.”
“Well, I firmly believe in the Method school of acting. So I’m quite sure it will help our performance if we spend as much time as possible making love.”
“Oh, I see.” She turned, twining her arms around his neck and backing into the bedroom. “Well, like you said, we have to suffer for our work.”
* * *
Mel was certain that one day she would look back and laugh. Or at least she would look back with the grim satisfaction of having survived.
Since going into law enforcement she had been kicked, cursed, slugged, and insulted, had doors slammed in her face and on her foot. She’d been threatened, propositioned, and, on one memorable occasion, she’d been shot at.
All of that was nothing compared to w
hat was being done to her in the Silver Woman.
The hotel’s exclusive and expansive beauty salon offered everything from a wash and set to something exotically—and terrifyingly—termed body wrapping.
Mel hadn’t had the courage for that one, but she was getting the treatment from head to toe—and every inch between.
She arrived moments before Linda and, falling back on her established persona, greeted the woman like an old friend.
During leg waxing—which, Mel discovered quickly enough, did hurt—they discussed clothes and hairstyles. Smiling through gritted teeth, Mel was glad she’d boned up for hours the night before with fashion magazines.
Later, while whatever pungent glop the beautician smeared on her face hardened, Mel chatted about how much she was enjoying living in Tahoe.
“Our view of the lake is incredible. I really can’t wait until we get to know more people. I love to entertain.”
“Jasper and I can introduce you around,” Linda offered as the pedicurist buffed her toenails. “Being in the hotel business, we know just about everyone you’d want to know.”
“That would be marvellous.” Mel chanced a look down and tried to look pleased, rather than horrified, that her toenails were being painted fuchsia. “Donovan mentioned to me that he met Jasper on the golf course at the club. Donovan just loves playing golf,” she said, hoping it trapped him into spending hours on the green. “It’s more a passion than a hobby.”
“Jasper’s the same way. I can’t work up an interest in it myself.” She began to chat about different people she wanted Mel to meet, and about how they might get together for tennis or sailing.
Mel agreed animatedly, wondering if a person could actually die of boredom.
Her face was scrubbed clean, and cream was slathered on. Some sort of oil was squirted all over her hair, and then plastic was wrapped around it.
“I just love being pampered this way,” Linda murmured. They were both lying back in soft chairs, having their hands massaged and their nails done.
“Me, too,” Mel said, and prayed they were nearly finished.
“I suppose that’s why this job suits me. Most of the time I work nights, so my days are free. And I can make use of all the hotel’s benefits.”
“Have you worked here long?”
“Almost two years now.” She sighed. “It’s never dull.”
“I imagine you meet all sorts of fascinating people.”
“The high-powered sort. That’s what I like. From what you were saying the other day, your husband doesn’t sound like small change.”
Mel would have grinned, but she settled for an indulgent smile. “Oh, he does very well. You could say that Donovan has the magic touch.”
They were rinsed, their scalps were massaged—Mel actually found it quite enjoyable—and it was nearly time for the finishing touches. She realized that if Linda didn’t probe soon she would have to find an opening to bring up the subject herself.
“You know, Mary Ellen, I was thinking about what you told me the other day.”
“Oh.” Mel feigned discomfort. “I’m so sorry about that, Linda, dumping on you that way, and so soon after we’d met. I guess I was feeling a little lost and homesick.”
“Nonsense.” Linda waved her glorious nails. “I think we just hit it off, that’s all. You were comfortable with me.”
“Yes, I was. But I’m more than a little embarrassed to think that I bored you with all that business about my personal life.”
“I wasn’t bored at all. I was touched.” Her voice was smooth as silk, with just the right touch of sympathy. Mel felt her hackles rising. “And it made me think. Please tell me if I’m getting too personal. But have you ever considered private adoption?”
